Sanctuary chronicles: Alice's mushroom
by Emilie-t
Summary: Curious? Then just follow the white rabbit. ;)
1. Chapter 1

_Hi sanctuarians !_

_This is me trying to translate one of my former fics from French to English. So, as you can imagine, English is NOT my first language and I'd be glad if a generous and friendly soul here accepted to beta- me and gave me a hand with my not so perfect English. This being said, I hope you'll enjoy it despite the mistakes…_

_Tell me what you think! Love to you all!_

**Chapter 1 :**

' ... If someone took something ? Helen, how do you want me to remember? It was 100 years ago! Of course I wouldn't be surprised if your beloved detective, with his wandering hands…'

'Nikola! Did you _see_ someone take something? Yes or no?'

'Wow, Helen, tell me my dear, why is it that I always find you more aggressive -and therefore even more attractive- on the phone?'

'Nikola!' The man in question continued on as if she hadn't complained.

'By the way, Helen, how did you get my new number?'

'Come on! You underestimate me Nikola, I know you by heart.'

'Uh! I'd like it so much for that to be true… So much…'

'Don't beat around the bush Nikola! Who stole them?'

'Oh! For crying out loud, I don't know! I told you, maybe Watson! He and Dogson got along well when dealing with aromatic herbs, coca leaves, et cetera… So why not mushrooms? You know, I hope you're aware that you're interrupting my work at this point!'

'It's always a pleasure to hear you, Helen, said Nikola Tesla!' Helen answered, something bitter and somewhat dangerous rising in her voice as her irritation increased. 'You really don't remember, don't you?' .

'Ok, I admit that I only vaguely remember the funeral but I can still see you in that mourning dress as if it was yesterday. My my Helen, what a dress! Far too low-cut for a mourning dress by the way, and the long lace gloves. Oh I liked them but James thought it was a little bit too much… wait! That's exactly why you were wearing them, isn't it? Come on, admit it! There certainly were some cute chick back then but nothing compared to you, the one everybody noticed. Well, actually everybody noticed Griffin too, but that's because he had his head in the clouds for the whole ceremony. He really should have turned invisible this day. Maybe it's him who stole at the Dodgson's. Stealing was his specialty after all. Ah…Those were the good old days..."

'As usual, you are absolutely useless Nikola. What a shame, I'd really appreciate your help on this..."

'Hey! I'm not responsible if the memory is selective! Anyway, why the sudden interest in botanic? What are you planni… Nikola started, but she hung up before he could finish, if he had any idea, he'd call back. Or not, after all, this is Nikola Tesla we're talking about.

To hearten herself, Helen readjusted her heel back in the stiletto she had let slide down her foot and uncrossed her legs before standing up just when Will appeared. He burst in, hobbling along, with his phone wedged between his right shoulder and ear, gripping a tablet and a coffee mug with one hand and carrying in the other a skyscraper-like stack of folders that threatened to spew out at any moment. Helen, her eyebrows raised in a silent mockery, couldn't remove the smile haunting the corner of her lips. Will reached her desk, which was cluttered, as usual, with wide open books and other unidentified and more or less flying objects, and looked at her while talking dryly on the phone, seemingly made a face when he realized there was no place left for him to put his files down. Watching him, Helen settled cozily in the armchair and offered him a bright and compassionate smile without even trying to clear out some space for him. Mumbling "thank you, bye" before hanging up, Will looked daggers at her as if asking for a rematch and let his folders spread on the already chaotic mess of the desk. For her part, she often found something so adorable in his clumsiness that she preferred taking delight in it and contemplating what Nikola named "the spontaneity of youth" rather than fighting it or preventing it. Anyway, this was Will and this was the relationship they had since the day she had knocked him down with her car. She couldn't help but tease, tickle, titillate and in the end, properly annoy him. In fact, sometimes, she purely and solely played to be his own personal Tesla.

'Magnus! he protested, pointing the desk with both hands 'If this is to remind me you're the boss, I already got it! But if this is your sadistic tendency creeping in, then I suggest we begin some therapy, right now!'

Helen chuckled. Despite everything, she had to confess she had a certain fondness for him. Will was smiling back, his eyes slyly darting a glance in her direction as if secretly asking "don't do that to me again', and in respond, she whispered a not so earnest apology in that somehow insolent voice she could sometimes have. For a second, he looked outraged and his desire vacillated between angrily slapping her and angrily kissing her, yet he just shook his head, getting rid of both ideas, before slowly sitting face to her.

'What's up?' he asked

'Nothing concrete, I'm afraid. The other Sanctuaries have never seen something like this. London staff seems to be the only ones infected, but still… I had an idea, but it doesn't lead anywhere since Nikola…'

'Oh, no, no, no, don't tell me he has something to do with it! Will said, making an horrified face. She smiled.

'No, not really. He knew Charles Dogson too, that's all.

'Wow Magnus! Wait, Dogson? As in Charles Lutwidge Dodgson alias Lewis Carroll, as in Alice in…'

'Yes Will, Dogson himself.'

' Okayyy, now you've got my attention!'

' Well, that's my theory. Do you remember the mushrooms Alice eats so that she can change size?

'Don't tell me that you think Declan's 2IC is now barely a foot tall because he had a dream where he drank a flask with a 'drink me' tag and followed a white rabbit down its hole?

'No, what I mean is that Nikola, James, Nigel and I where there the day Charles' parents emptied his flat after he died. We suspected him to have hidden some floral abnormals and insects and many of the plants we found there appeared to possess amazing properties…'

'As in "_shrinking"_ properties ? Come on Magnus ! It's a novel !'

'Actually it's a more a count. But a literary debate will have to wait since Henry, you and I are flying to London in less than two hours. Go get ready!'

With this, she stood up and headed toward the door, letting a wide-eyed Will follow her with his glance.

'What about our team week-end in Tang…?'. His voice echoed through the doorway.

'Two hours, don't be late!' She called back sharply, her heels clicking and echoing as she walked down the corridor.


	2. Chapter 2

**.**

**Chapter II**

_-Three days later. London Sanctuary, 2pm, in the late James Watson's office-_

**"**Knock knock,**"**

**"**Hey**,** Will! Did you see the doc? She asked me to work on this an hour ago but I haven't been able to find her since.**"**

**"**No, I haven't. I've been looking for her too. I just came back from the lab and there was nobody down there. What's this?**"** Will asked, staring with an incredulous air at the tangle of wires Henry was carrying.

**"**At first, it was an infrared camera**.** Now**,** it's the R.E.D.: Retrotoad-Enzyme-Detector**."**

**"**Retrotoad?**"**

**"**Would you prefer **'**mushrink**'**? Magnus wanted me to build something that can help find Thomas. She said there will still be traces of the mushroom enzyme left in his blood, so… Oh**,** and you know what? She also said the shrinking has some side-effects like narcolepsy and disorientation. Apparently the brain needs some times to adjust to the new distances. So**,** maybe Thomas freaked up and hid somewhere. Didn't you notice how anxious Declan has been because of his disappearance?**" **Henry replied.

**"**Well**,** everybody would get anxious knowing their friend is miniaturized and experiencing a psychedelic delirium while lost in the wild…**"**

**"**Yeah, I guess so, but I was actually wondering if there was something going on between th**-"**

**"**Hey guys, do either of you know when Magnus is going to come back?**"** Declan's voice rose from the corridor and Henry instantly jumped, making Will chuckle.

**"**Did she tell you she was leaving?**" **Will asked.

**"**No but it's been two hours since I started looking for her. I called her but she wouldn't pick up so I thought maybe she had forgotten.**"**

**"**No, it's not like her. She's not answering her walkie-talkie either.**"**

_First Thomas, and then Magnus__**...**_ Will thought and he suddenly had a bad feeling. He rushed downstairs, Henry treading on his heels while shouting** "**Are you pondering what I'm pondering?**"**

**"**If you're think we're gonna use the R.E.D to find Magnus first, then yes!**"** he shouted back.

**"**I'm going to search the first stair, stay in radio-contact!**"** Declan said.

They rummaged through the Sanctuary, searching from top to bottom – it seemed Henry's detector was still in an experimental phase- and Will was starting to fear she may have left the old castle, as Thomas did, when he noticed a disconcerting detail. Magnus wouldn't let her clothes drag on, even less hanging untidily on one of the lab chair. He came closer without being fully aware of what he could find, and on the way, tripped over a pair of black stilettos, slipped on a puddle of clear water, and almost knocked the microscope over**. **Finally, catching the edge of the table, he hauled himself back up, and there she was.

For a minute, he simply stood there, dumbfounded, astonished, and looking at the most insane picture of his whole career at the Sanctuary. Helen Magnus, the all-legs-and-brown-haired Helen Magnus**;** the woman whose authority, until this very morning still, could rule the world**;** the woman who, standing up straight on her high heels every day, tried and succeeded in being as good as the legend she was**;** the woman who spent her time wining a never-ending arm wrestling against death**;** that very same Helen Magnus lay here asleep. The same**,** except she was a much, much smaller version of herself. She was on her side, in the corner of the chair, a white little thing shining on a pile of black silk. She was a little less than a foot tall and yet Will was still petrified by her figure.

"I could probably hold her entire body in just one of my hands!"he thought. Then he realized he had to react, to go tell the others, to wake her up, to find a cure or at least a solution, something**. **But how could he do anything now that he could see her shiver and slowly begin to awaken? He barely had the time to cover her naked form with her scarf before she rose up, looking a little wild and dazed.

Helen's head was spinning. There was a whirl of colors**; **with no shape, no limits**;** it was as if matter and space had been mixed and deformed. She felt dizzy, caught up by the surrounding background. Everything seemed undefined and gigantic just like the first time she arrived in New York City with Tesla after they had spent the whole flying trip drinking luxurious wines. She tried to stand up but immediately fell back. She was beginning to make out contours and lines next to her but was still unable to identify anything. The ground felt hard and so cold that it burned under her skin, as if made of a very thick and dense icy metal. She wrapped herself in the sheet and covered her breast**s** by instinct**,** but the material smelled of her own perfume so strong it actually suffocated her. In the end, she managed to stand up and walk a few steps before she staggered again, the sheet impeding her. Those quick movements turned her stomach and she groaned, feeling frustrated and hurt. If only she could run and hide in some warm and safe place to wait until this strange hangover stopped. If only she could teleport into a comfy dunk tank… But there was something familiar here, something she couldn't leave… She hardly had any clear memory and yet… What day was it? Where was this place? Hadn't she planned to spend the weekend in Tangier with Kate, Henry and Will? That thought made her pause in her thinking. Will! Where was he?

**"**Will?**"** she called with a voice so feeble and low you could barely hear it. The reflection of the artificial and agressive bluish light on the polished ground blinded her a little.

**"**I'm right here**,** Magnus**," **he said calmly. His loud, deep voice seemed to come out of nowhere and rose from everywhere at the same time, making her insides vibrate and shiver. All of a sudden, she saw his enormous face getting close at full speed and couldn't fight the urge to take a step back. His pale grey and overwhelmingly big eyes moved closer as his face did; only few meters away– or few centimeters for him.

**"**How do you feel?**" **he asked, watching her in amazement. His voice sounded like it was something tangible and solid.

"Quite small," Was the only answer she deemed appropriate. However**,** her body hurt so much she struggled to get the meaning of the words she could hear. She felt her limbs gently weaken and her eyelids flutter and close down. She could tell something soft and warm was now supporting her and she tried to recover her strength but the drowsiness overcame her, and she fell into a dreamless sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter III**

London, Two days later, 10pm, Sanctuary lab.

When Helen woke up lying on a huge cushion, wrapping tightly in her scarf, their three pairs of eyes were scrutinizing her in disbelief. Even if her mind slowly emerged from wherever it was in limbo her vision still drifted away, unsteady and jumpy. The giant presence of her friends up there should be soothing but plunged her into an unexplainable and uneasy fear instead. The three of them had been, as many other men before, her very faithful soldiers, always ready and more than willing to get her back as many times as necessary, but despite the fact that she trusted them with her life, now that they could do whatever they wanted to her and had that much power, she couldn't help but feel exposed. Vulnerability had never suited her, never pleased her and will never do so. Reaching that train of thought, she decided to stand up and act and Will could notice the anxiety quickly vanished from her face, pushed away by a sparkling flush of determination that was the perfect quintessence of his mentor's soul.

'How long did I sleep?' she asked then.

'Three days' Henry answered in a mixture of concern and apology. She probably wouldn't be happy with this.

'I'm so thirsty…' She simply said.

Will instantly hurried up, brought her some water, then marvel at the lovely, gorgeous and miraculous living doll when she plunged her forearms into the big glass and drank from her cup-shape hands in the most natural way.

'Did you find Thomas?' She asked.

'No, but right now, it seems we have another serious problem …'

'I'm fine. Henry, is the detector working?'

'Yes, I mean, yes, approximately.'

'Damn, we have to continue searching, he can't be far but don't underestimate the situation. Henry, Declan, take a team with you and go find him. Will, quite obviously, I'll need your help here in the lab.

They all did as told.

'How did this happen to you too? Asked Will half talking to him-self.

'I have no idea, I just woke up like this'

'Magnus, you should rest, your mind is clear but your body has been through a lot and you're very pale.

'Thank you Will, but I thing I have slept enough for the five next years.'

She began to walk on the table until she came to its edge, and from up there, she looked back at the floor. Normally, it would be too high for her to jump off and yet she felt so confident…Maybe she could give it a try…

'Magnus, what are you doing?' Will shouted but she had already landed, squatting down on the cold tiles of the lab.

'Are you nuts? How did you do that?' He asked.

'The smaller you are the lighter and the more flexible.' She explained winking at him. 'I'm gonna have a walk!'

'A walk? What for? I'm coming with you.'

'I'll be fine by myself, Will, I can still manage'

'Magnus! Okay, as you want but please don't…'

'See you!'

'Wait, please just don't go out the Sanctuary'

'I promise.'

He opened the door so that she could leave and watched the little thing dragging the train of its scarf along the corridors.


	4. Chapter 4

_Hi everyone, sorry for the delay!  
_

_And thank you a lot for the reviews!_

Chapitre 4 

She roamed for a while through the silent and endless corridors, trying to get her bearings until she randomly found herself in front of the staircase. She ran down the first steps with surprisingly ease, jumped down and down tirelessly as if her bones were made of metallic springs and rushed for the door. Indeed, if her memory served her right, there would be the doll house her father had offered to her on her 7th birthday. She hadn't really played with it in the past mainly because it was such a masterpiece, all carved in solid oak and perfectly polished, that contemplating it was more than enough. And, better than that, she could remember its beautiful wardrobe in which she hoped to find something she could wear. That was the reason why she was now heading straight for the dusty cellars. The dollhouse might still be waiting for her where she had abandoned it when she left London. The corridors darkened as she moved forward, imprinting the parquet floor with her bare foot and somewhere near, the repeated splash of a drop of water poured liquid dread on the surroundings.

She unconsciously sped up a little.

She finally arrived in the old playroom, listening to reason and fighting to keep her mind clear, then scanned the horizons straightaway and looked for the big dollhouse. She almost screamed when something crashed and burst noisily right behind her back, making the floor vibrate all around for a second. Cogs and wheels sprang up from a broken music box which started to play the disturbing notes of a music piece by Chopin. Her Godfather had always loved Chopin. She laughed, Nikola would have found this atmosphere so cliché.

Another noise frightened her, she turned over and saw nothing, yet she was sure something had moved. However, when she found the dollhouse, she forgot it, and forced the small door open. A pink-white light instantly switched on and she wondered where it could come from. Bending down in order to avoid the beams of the ceiling, she went in the living-room and noticed it: the chandelier wasn't an ordinary chandelier; it had fascinated her a lot when she was a little girl, and for a good reason, it was a perfectly cubic and slightly pinkish stone hanging in the middle of the room. She only had to stretch her arm to take it down and, once in her hand, the enchanting gleam of its polished surface dimmed a little but didn't go out. Well, it seems her father had let another mystery behind him for her to solve. She looked up with respect, as she always does when thinking of him, as if convinced of his presence somewhere nearby and expecting him to randomly appear face to her in the air.

Out of the house, the indefinable noise repeated at an untimely moment and she hurried into the bedroom. The wardrobe was incredibly intact; the clothes didn't even smell of dust or mildew. She sighed and threw all the corsets, stockings, undershirts, slips, petticoats, dresses, eyelet laces, embroideries, hats, sunshades, gloves to the ground and hastily selected some. Thankfully, there were a few classy men's suits imitated from the yeomen's costumes of this time, as it seemed. The shoes, however, showed signs of age and were so deformed that she couldn't even put her feet in them. Yet the body-stocking like underwear fitted her even if the thick seams were itching her skin a little and she literally battled with the laces of a corset - hard to knot by oneself, but at least it will hold her breast – then slip on a pair of men's trousers – anticipating the great effort the way back up will require- and finally threw a shawl on her shoulders. The result made her smile by its disparate look, yet, according to the oval mirror it possessed a sort of obsolete beauty, a reminiscence of aristocratic elegancy, in brief, something sophisticated and noble. And given the actual very tiny size of the sheets, such clothes were a master piece in themselves. The trousers were a little too short, though, but anyway, nobody will notice. She would have to ask Will to get the whole wardrobe set in her room since there was no way she could bring everything upstairs.

Leaving the wooden house, she bumped into a broken porcelain doll and froze with horror. And as soon as she closed the front door behind her, a muscular strength hit her with just enough power for her to fly to the ground. The luminescent stone she was carrying instantly jumped of her arms and rolled away and the dreadfully huge toothy and stinky mouth of Titus (Thomas' ordinary little red cat) hung up in the air only a few millimeters away from her face. Titus sniffed loudly and she could feel his hot-moist breath gluing to her when he licked his lips – which, from this particular point of view, wasn't cute at all anymore – as if anticipating the tasting. In less than one second he would have devoured her. 'Titus stop!' She cried and took advantage of his moment of immobility to kick his mussel and escape. He watched her run away, compressed his body, and raised his fur, ready to pounce on her. He caught her when she sneaked out of the door and tried to close it on him. They fought valiantly on each side of it but in the end, he was the strongest and pushed her on her back, dealt her repeated little blows as if testing the water and sniffed her deeply again, softly shaking her body with his nose. Suddenly, he pricked up his ears and stayed on the watch a moment. She stood up and rushed headlong to catch an abandoned pen on the floor, she quickly turned the corner and came face to face with a fat rat as tall and threatening as a wild boar. The beast charged at her, its claws spread out menacingly; she managed to avoid the impact but another rat one came out of nowhere, pierced her leg with its sharp teeth and she violently hit him with the plastic pen.

Then, she could hear the frenzied course of the cat and started to panic, and called 'Titus' again while fighting with the two predators. She prepared to hit the cat too, but at the last moment he caught a rat, biting it on the neck instead of her. It was such a bloodshed she had to look away. However, the now hesitating second rat decided to strike back and she couldn't divert all its attacks. Her clothes were starting to stick to her blood-drenched skin; she won't stand this dance any longer. So, in a last effort she jumped and firmly hammered the pen in its flank. The transparent tube of the pen filled with blood the way a syringe does and the rat slowly fell flat on its face.

Titus lazily raised his head above his meal, came to her and she wondered if ... He hit her tenderly like he has done before and she understood that he had recognized her and was playing with her. She stroked him, slightly at first but then more frankly, making him purr and purr again. At a point, he rapidly pressed her to the ground under his paw and started licking her from head to toes. She cursed, rumbled and reprimanded but nothing worked. His saliva was burning hot and sticky but she could feel it cleaning her wounds and relieving her pain, so she reluctantly let him finish. Then he prostrated himself in front of her and its posture contained so much solemnity and reverence that it gave her an insane idea. She was a very talented horsewoman once, even an excellent one… She tightly grasped a fistful of Titus' neck hairs in both her hand, at the exact place she knew cat's skin to be very flexible, and sat astride, digging her heel in his side, moving her hips to get him walk, riding. The cat reared and bucked but she was hanging on robustly so he finally bowed down and began to trot. Compared to this, horse riding was a piece of cake. He was so awfully wild and rebel she had to struggle a long time before she could approximately control him, approximately.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapitre 5

_11 pm, London, Sanctuary, James Watson's office._

Will was scanning the screen of the surveillance camera. There has been a long time since Magnus went for her 'little walk' and, with his heart beating fast in his mouth, he began to regret having let her leave all alone. What a surprise then, when he heard Titus jump and tumble on his desk and saw Helen Magnus ride down his back with a disconcertingly skilled agility. She was out of breath, her complexion a soft pink, her hair tousled and crazy, her shoulder blade threatening to brim over the purple shawl covering her back. Under it he could make out the sleeveless border of a corsage and the pale beige corset that seemed to come directly from an historical movie. The black trousers let him catch a glimpse of her bare feet and ankles and drew the lean lines of her long legs. She rested her hands on her thighs to restore her balance and catch her breath.

And this whole vision was so exuberant and deliriously beautiful that he wasn't even sure it was real.

Helen stood up straight and offered him a mischievous smile (you know the one) which made the blood assail his cheeks and that's when he noticed a small detail:

'You're injured?!'

She looked down at her arms and legs with genuine surprise: adrenaline had made her forget.

'Oh that's nothing, I think I found something very inter…'

'Let me take a look, it's bleeding'

'I'll take care of it Will, listen, I just discovered my father…'

'Magnus!'

She would drive him mad. Without thinking any longer, he caught the small body in his firm fist, getting a muffled scream out of it, and lifted it up face to him before saying in the most threatening tone: 'webandageyourwoundsnow!' She glanced at him with a perplexed eye for a minute, perched on nothing but void, kicking her feet in panic and then acquiesced, laughing at the close-up she had on his face. On the desk, Titus, who was watching the scene carefully, slowly drew his claws and fangs out.

A moment later, Will realized he was still holding her when he felt her little hands gripping painfully on his thumb and he settled her on his shoulder. Titus instantly relaxed.

'Hang on, we're going to the infirmary.' He warned.

She almost fell at the first step he took forward but he caught her and, clanging to his earlobe, she clenched her teeth when he walked down the stairs, jogging along a little. Compared to this, Space Mountain was a piece of cake. When he finally put her on the table, she was paler than if she had traversed a wormhole to another planet, which means even paler than Tesla in his bad days.

'Wow, that's what one calls 'reaching Cloud nine'!'

'Did you doubt my ability to give a woman good time?'

'Ah! Cheeky monkey! I find you abnormally self-confident these days young William!

He ran hot water from the tap in a big white bowl before carrying it next to her and saying:

'Enjoy it while it's hot, I'm gonna get you some soap.'

She waited for him to turn his back and take his leave before she quickly undressed, moaning when the clothes stuck to her wounds and climbed into the burning bowl. Her muscles instantly melt, her limbs got so heavier she wasn't sure she would be able to stand up again and her breath grew deeper and louder.

When Will came back, he literally petrified nose to nose with what looked like a painting by Manet : Helen was calmly drowsing off with her eyelids half closed, her left knee folded against her breast and supporting her cheek, a stream of black loose curls falling into the water –their soaked ends drawing stripes on her pale back and arms. Of her right leg, he couldn't see anything except the little bony oval peak emerging from the reddish surface.

At that blessed moment, Helen Magnus was embodying the purest aestheticism and him, the purest voyeurism, he thought.

He rapidly put the piece of soap and the smallest towel he had found on the edge of the bowl and immediately turned his heels. She had seen him, anticipated him, and had even considered asking him to stay for a while, only to have a little company.

Half an hour later, she was wrapped in the towel and Will was cleaning the wounds she couldn't reach on her own.

'You still don't want to tell me what did this? It's not the cat? Is it?'

'Once again, Will, there's no point in insisting.'

'Sometimes, you're insufferable, you know that?'

'Yes, believe me you're not the first one to tell me'

He sighed.

'What were you so keen to tell me a moment ago?

'I found a luminescent stone in one of my birthday present.'

'A…shining stone?'

'Yes, it's somewhere in the cellar, you should go and see for yourself, it's really stupendous. I can't help but imagine Henry's face when he'll found out!' (and Nikola's above all) She thought.

'You, no! You had been on the cellar? Are you nuts?'

' Oh, Will, wait, if you go down there, can you bring back the wardrobe of the dollhouse too please? I'm afraid I'm going to need this for a while.'

_Thanks everyone for the reviews! You can't imagine what they do to me._

_Love to you all._

_Ps: I still need an english beta ...  
_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**_  
_

_The next day, sanctuary laboratory, London_

Declan and Henry came back empty.

"Where's the Lilliputian?"

Will couldn't repress his own smirk; he lifted his eyes from the microscope's lens and roughly rubbed his temple in order to chase the growing roots of a nasty migraine away. Declan took his turn in front of the instrument and Will applied himself to find Magnus, wherever she was hidden again. On his way, he randomly stopped in the kitchen, grabbed a piece of bread, and was about to leave when he saw her there, sitting on a shelf, nibbling at something undefined. He could see her bare foot escaping from the lacy patterns of a long purple dress and lightly swaying in the void.

"You know, while observing the genetic structure of the mushrooms, I noticed it was the very same than the ordinary amanitas except for one chromosome, which is rather strange. You could expect the mutation to mingle with several chromosomes as in any natural evolution, but instead in this case, the shrinking gene seems independent as if one's had duplicated a chromosome to sustain it… She said.

"You think it's genetic engineering ?"

"That's a possibility."

" Though, correct me if I'm wrong but back in Dogson's time, we didn't know about DNA manipulations yet."

"No, WE didn't but…"

"Praxis!"

"Exactly!"

"Maybe we could try and contact Rana as you did for me."

"She has her hands tied Will, I won't take the risk to bring suspicion of the senate and for now, neither Thomas nor I are in imminent danger. So let's keep Praxis as a last resort, shall we? What about the stone? Any news from Henry?"

« He spent the last hour doing weird tests and conjugating all the variations of « cool », that's all I know. How did you climb up here?"

Magnus's only answer was to raise her shoulders and Will started to tell himself there was something different in her gesture since she was smaller, something wilder and somehow childish.

"Could you bring me to the library, there must be something about this stone, at least a reference somewhere?"

She made him go through agonizing hours: bringing some books then putting them away, fighting against sleep and turning the pages for her, facing the temptation to blindly stare at her, venturing some theories, then refuting them all, drinking tea, holding back his yawns… He refused to acknowledge it to himself, but at this point, he was envying Henry and Declan: first because they were both asleep for three hours and secondly because they were free of those twisted masochistic feelings towards her. One would think his only real and proper ability was to watch her think, work and walk around in that fiendishly enthralling doll-dress.

"Maybe we're looking at the wrong place" He finally sighed.

She slowly looked up as to encourage him to persevere but his doughy eyes came to her notice and she sent him to bed. He casted a last glance at the scene before leaving and smiled. Lounging on the desk, Titus pricked up his excited ears each time she would struggle to turn a page.

_7.30 am, Sanctuary kitchen_

The next morning, when Will opened the kitchen door, Helen and Henry were already lost in what seemed an enthusiastic discussion.

"So, if my intuition proves right, we're soon going to get our answer!"

« Which intuition? » Will asked out of the blue.

"Well, first, we find hollow earth and then, three months later, my father's former sanctuary came in contact with a Praxian amanita that had mysteriously disappeared since Charles Dogson's death. Thomas and I get shrunken and, as if by coincidence, at this exact moment, I find the miraculous stone my father had let me. What if everything has a link? What if the doll-house had been a sort of clue leading to the stone?"

"You mean you think the whole scenario is another frame-up of your father? Magnus, isn't it a little…You're speculating here... »

« Well, perharps, but you are the one who first gave me the idea last night."

_5.20 pm, Laboratory _

Henry was quite litterally pulling his hair out while studying the stone and he sometimes gave a desperate look at the Minimoys version of his doc who was busy dissecting shrooms when Will and Declan came back from another vain rescue mission, their shape a fine dark brown in the springtime twilight.

"Thomas managed to leave the city. We roamed every miles possible so, either he's not in London anymore, or the detector isn't working." Will said, pointing an accusing finger at Henry. Declan let his fist hit the table in defeat.

« No way ! It works like a charm! » Henry retorted, tearing the device from Will's hand and placing it above Helen's head. She offered him an assassin look when the red light switched on and the little "bip" came out of it. He muttered what sound like an apology and aimed a challenging glance at Will. Everyone seemed in the verge of losing his patience and, as minutes went on, Will started to fear a serious outburst. Strangely enough, Magnus, who was tough the first one concerned, was maintaining an expression of perfect serenity rather similar to mischievous nonchalance.

« You don't give a damn, don't you ? You found that stone and since that, nothing else seemed worthy of interess to you?" Will bitterly asked.

Helen rose an outraged eyebrow and crossed her arms high on her chest.

« Doctor Zimmerman," she started –and at that minute, Will already regretted his words- "I suggest you to leave this room if you're not able to keep your sang-froid!"

« Magnus, it's been a week now since you're… small and we've just spent another day searching for Thomas, so you'll excuse me if, unlike you, I seem to take the situation to heart! »

"The effects are not permanent Will" Henry calmly said.

"What?"

« No they aren't ! She confirmed. Maybe you didn't progress this afternoon, Will, but we did and you should consider listening to us before unleashing your bile." She sighed and then continued: "The one who conceived this mutation designed it for humans specifically, it doesn't affect other species and he probably even did it for himself. Each time I observe the amanita I discover some new elements which assure the safety of the transformation. It's benign Will, as if every measure, every precaution had been taken to avoid risks. The only remaining danger was that the smaller a creature is, the faster its heart beats and the shorter its lifetime becomes, in other words, a man of this size would only survive two or three dozen years maximum, and besides, who would want to be permanently shrunken? There must be some kind of inner protocol that restores the normal size after some time has passed…"

« Question is : How long ? »

« No, Will, the real question is : why would someone want to be smaller in the first place, what for? And the answer is in that stone. Show them, Henry."

Henry took the stone and threw it on the table where it started to spin like a top. It sparkled wildly and headed towards Helen who was walking slowly. It followed her until she stopped and began to draw circles around her.

« Wow, awesome ! »


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**_  
_

_Few days later, London, Sanctuary corridors, 3.11 pm,_

"At that stage, I don't call it "working" anymore; I call it an obsession Henry! She hadn't slept a wink, or ate a substantial meal for three days at least!"

"Yeah, but what do you want me to do Will?"

"I don't know, help me convince her to knock-off" He answered in an unwavering tone while pushing the laboratory door open to face his worst nightmare: The Doctor Helen Magnus with a strict and stubborn idea in mind. Declan met Henry who was laughing at the spectacle that took place on the over side of the glass-wall.

"What's happening?"

"Gargamel versus Smurfette. Henry answered, pointing a finger at Will and Magnus."

"Ah ah, we should go before someone get killed"

"I bet the doc win."

He was about to follow Declan when he heard Helen's voice calling him. The Londoner made the face that meant "you're in deep shit, old boy" before he left. And when Henry entered the room, the atmosphere was electrified by such a tense silence he actually turned over, expecting Tesla to show up behind him at anytime.

"Henry, please, can you take me to my office?" She asked, or rather, ordered.

"'course doc!" He answered hurriedly in perceptible relief and stretched his hand.

Will watched her climb on his shoulder with a hint of jealously he tried to annihilate: usually, he was the lady's exclusive coach driver, not that he thought about complaining, on the contrary.

She had given him the famous "I don't remember asking your assistance about the way I organize my time", and then the ritual "I certainly wasn't born yesterday" and the final "Sometimes, you sound just like James" so that now, he felt miserable to be the only one who had the cheek to show that he indeed considered her well-being when the other just let her devote herself to her blind exces or rather blind asceticism. He observed them both when they left the room, thinking, with a knot in his stomach that the auto-destructive potential of his mentor had something frankly disturbing. She was so extreme sometimes that he was certain she would blow everything up in the end, including herself.

_4;06 pm, James Watson's office_

Will jumped out of sleep at the sound of the strident alarm "security compromised on level three, security compromised on level three, security com…" Damn! He swore rising his head from the desk. He had fallen asleep in his report and there was a little trail of drool moistening the headline. He hastily caught his walkie-talkie and shouted in a hoarse voice:

"Henry, Declan, do you copy? What happened?" He ran to the third floor, met the two others who held out tranquillizers guns to him.

Magnus was going out of her office and heading to the kitchen when the alarm went on. She barely had enough time to understand the message before she heard a roar. The iguana-copia was obviously as famished as she was. The results were a high speed chase that lasted until she was out of breath, then a series of dodging tricks, a succession hiding places and stunts, voices coming out of the near corridors, sounds of missed gun-shot and broken glasses, curses, fangs slamming shut behind her. She climbed in extremis on a dresser and flung herself several times into a luxurious vase in order to project it. It finally fell, and she fell with it in a crashing noise right onto the reptilian skull.

She heard someone order "don't shoot", felt the lack of movement underneath her and started to laugh, a little intoxicated with adrenaline and stunned by the impact of her fall. Declan appeared the first and laughed in relief too, then an incredulous Will came and smiled followed by Henry who whispered something like "dude, it's depressing, even in mini-herself she's better than us". Noticing Will's gaping, she adjusted her dress which frills had hitched up high on her bare legs and stood up to climb in the hand he held out to her in amnesty. But the iguana woke up suddenly and bit Will's pulpy calf. The young man cried and stumbled, Declan and Henry immediately ran away, purchasing the vicious abnormal. Will fell on his back, gripping Helen's waist so tight her face went blue. His fingers finally released her hips and he sat up on this elbow, looking at her anxiously. Her tiny body was still retaining shakes, lying flat on his manly chest, her nails digging like talons in his shirt. She looked up at him with her under lip slightly pursed.

"Are you alright?" She then asked, giggling.

He snorted and she could left his vrooming and deafening heartbeat all around her. It seemed on the verge to explode each time it blow up with blood and she suddenly remembered this awesome night when she was in the orchestra pit, in front of the stage, just under the speakers, at that bloody brilliant Pink Floyd concert -Pink Floyd and Clare Torry, what year was it then? 73, 74 maybe- and the bass notes and rhythm were shaking her like pulses… She had been deaf the next morning but whatever, Clare hadn't always used her voice to make her shiver, she hadn't used it that morning at least, she had been so languid and…

« You're sure you're ok ?" Will asked.

" Yes, I was just thinking about… nevermind."

_1 am, Library._

Will's calf had been stitched and he was dozing off in the library next to Magnus's already sleeping form. At first, when Henry came in, he thought nobody was there, but then he saw Will's foot sticking up from the sofa. He approached slightly and stopped dead. Will was asleep, lying on his left side against the velvet back; within an inch of his face, the tiny Doctor peacefully slept in fetal position. Will jigged, quietly grumbled as if about to wake up and softly covered up his mentor with the palm of his hand. Only her little bare foot and wandering black locks escaped from that fleshy blanket. Henry stood there a moment, something in this scene moved him to the point he silently wished he could have the ability to take pictures with the blinking of his eyes.

**Thank you everyone for your reviews! You're adorable! **

**And a special thanks to AnthropologistGirlInTheMakin g.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

_Sanctuary Laboratory, the next morning._

"I have to leave this place."

Will's nose surfaced from his bowl of vitamin rich cereals, his eyes blinking skeptically in a silent question.

"We have to go north" she added.

"May I ask why?"

"Look"

She had fastened a thin cord to the glistening pebble, and, carrying it a few inches away from the table, she made it swing as a pendulum would dance at the end of its strand. And, a few seconds later, the stone, attracted by an invisible magnet, stabilized itself in an unnatural angle. Helen turned around, repeated the process once or twice and the stone would always point out the same direction: north. Will looked at her with googly eyes, his spoon hanging midcourse between the bowl and his lips.

"I have to go there, Will" she asserted

"To go where, exactly?"

"Wherever it will take me"

"No, no, no, Magnus, this is crazy, we can't just leave like this and follow blindly that damn sto…"

"Hey Magnus, you were right about the amanita" Declan said, entering the room and handing his tablet. "I just isolated the molecule that causes the shrinking and, according to my calculations, it can only survive 3 or 4 weeks in a foreign body."

Magnus offered him a bright smile.

"Which means, I should get my 5,7 back in more or less than twenty days, nothing to worry about then! Any news from Henry and his testing?"

"He's apparently far from done…But I found another very interesting thing: it's a press clipping from a local newspaper which mentions a bicycle accident in Glasgow due to this man. He pretends that he saw a Lilliputian on the road…"

"Thomas!"

"Yes, probably. I guess we're going to Glasgow then?" Declan asked.

"We're leaving in one hour!" she confirmed and almost sang.

" Wait, what do you mean, "we"? "

« Will, if I have to stay here locked in and secluded for another day, I may well explode."

" And this sudden need of fresh air has, of course, absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Glasgow is in the north!" Will commented.

" Pure coincidence!" she answered in a joyful tone.

_One hour later, climbing into the helicopter _

« I couldn't reason with her, she still insist on coming..."

" Well, it's totally understandable Will, she's also a field person, just imagine how frustrating it must be for her to stay here, going in circles like this…" Declan said.

« Hey! I know, I'm the psychiatrist here..."

"Yes but Will…"

"Fine! Let her come! But I swear, if any harm is done to her or if we have to spend the next few days searching for her as we're doing for Thomas…

« I'm a dead man, I get it Will » Declan finished

Henry appeared and put Helen down on her feet next to Will in the cockpit before he crept in and settled.

The further north they flew, the more agitated and turbulent Helen felt. Later on, they finally landed in a sunlit clearing. Helen had climbed onto the very top of Will's head to get a panoramic view of the landscape and separated the initial team in two duos: Will and her had to roam as many miles as they could meanwhile Declan and Henry were questioning the villagers.

Everything was fine and they had even managed to reduce the searching area thanks to Henry's device until a brutal storm burst out. All of a sudden, unsparing waterspouts and hailstones skittered everywhere, thunderbolts slaughtered the highest trees, and, laid down by the pressure of the winds, a heavy fog started to float, freezing their cheek and clouding their sight. Walkie-talkies now sizzled to the point that any attempt to communicate was vain.

Henry and Declan were barricaded in a pub, drinking thick beers and silently praying for their friends dashing for a shelter several miles away.

At dusk, Jupiter calmed down and Will, soaked from head to toes, was randomly hiking through the forest, following the bright circle of his flashlight in the wet woods. When he ventured to ask if they should retrace their steps back to the helicopter, Magnus set against it, making it clear that she wouldn't turn back. She could feel they were close and the stone was shining more than ever. The ecstatic tingling playing in her limbs grew and became harder and harder to ignore.

"Go on, Will" she said.

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutly, we won't fly back to London with that weather conditions anyway."

"Okay… What do you expect to find Magnus, truthfully?"

"No idea. But Thomas might have come here for the same reason, something is happening, I'm pretty sure of it!"

Will walked in silence. Magnus' overexcitement had begun to rub off on him and act as a shield against his own fears.

"Stop ! " he heard her scream.

« What is it ? »

« Look at your feet !»

He slowly glance down and kneeled. Between the roots, everywhere around them, mushrooms emerged from tufts of wet moss. Black and silky mushrooms, with white spots he knew all too well. Their damp skin reflected the glaringly light of his torch and seemed to release a milky vapor, a white and acid steam which made his nostrils shiver, enlightened his senses. It was odd, pleasant... He came closer. So pleasant.

« Will ! Will ! What on hearth are you doing ? Will no!"

But it was too late. He had already swallowed one.

Helen jumped in the mud just before Will collapsed. Droplets poured from his pores as if he had came right out of a sauna and then, in the next ten minutes, Helen could observe, in the fading gleam of the flash light, the most extraordinary metamorphosis of her whole career. Will's body seemed to melt, dissolve from within and was progressively shrinking. When he finally reached his new size, Helen started to look for a refuge where they could at least spend the night, found a dry hole under a thick root and, pulling an unconscious Will under his shoulders, she laid him there, in the depth of the cavity. Then she made several returns to bring back the contents of his purse. She grabbed the matches and after suffering many faillures due to the uncommon size of the sticks, she lit a giant fire.

Will was asleep for several hours now, and in the end, she was so worn out that she began to drowse on the fluffy moss too.


	9. Chapter 9

Hi everyone!

Thanks to Anthropologistgirlinthemakin g, who is, by the way, one of the best souls in the world, I could re-edit my first chapter in real proper English, or so I hope. Slowly but surely, I'm gonna do the same with the other ones and let you know when there are replaced. It seems that in the end, this fic will look decent! Yata!

Translating this chapter was pretty tough, so as usual, a big virtual hug to those who take the time to review!

**Chapter 9**

_Two days later, Highelms Forest_

For the third time this morning, Will slowly opened his eyes. He had a splitting headache and felt terribly nauseous. Because of the fire that he could hear blazing somewhere near, he thought, at first, that he was in Helen's office, standing in front of the mantelpiece, but then he sensed the smell of wet wood and soil and tried to stand up. But his limbs wouldn't respond and he barely had enough strength to unglue his dry lips and call "Magnus" once or twice. She appeared through a curtain of pearly foliage, lightly lit by a pale and enchanting sunbeam. That's when he noticed a worrying detail: they were both the same size. She came and sit next to him, offering him some water in a nutshell. She was pretty.

"Painful, isn't it?' she said.

"Yeah, it reminds me of this day when we were brought back to life in Hollow Earth. Where the hell are we, in elf land?" he asked, referring to the bow strapped to her back. She rolled her eyes.

"Will, why did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Why did you eat the amanita!" she answered looking a little upset.

"I ate it?"

"You don't remember?"

"No, why would I do that?"

"That's precisely what I'm asking you. Nevermind, we have to go, as soon as you're feeling better, of course.

"To go where?"

"Don't you feel it now, the attraction?"

Will almost split his water out; except for the undefeatable force attracting his eyes to her long, incredibly long legs, he didn't feel anything. He looked up at her and saw on her face an expression that petrified him, an expression he had only seen once: on that crazy journey in the submarine, when she nearly became a bloody killer, handcuffed him to a chair, whispered threats in his ears, her velvet breath against his neck…

"Are you alright?" she asked, perplexed.

"No, I mean yes, I'm fine."

"Very well, maybe you'll feel it too in a moment. Here, get dressed." She ordered, pulling out a spare shirt and trousers from a handmade bundle.

He all but had a heart attack when he realized he was as nude as a newborn. Magnus had covered him with her large shawl but it had fallen to his feet during his agitated sleep. He quickly grabbed the clothes, mumbling his thanks and avoiding her gaze, aware that his cheeks were flushed.

"No time for modesty Will, I've seen men before." She joked.

"Pity, I wish I had more effect on you than that." He teased in a sigh; hoping that humor would give him more control over the situation.

She laughed. Cheeky Zimmerman. She went out of the shelter and consulted the pendulum. They were so close, her skin was tingling. Will came out too and gently took the bundle from her shoulder and they left.

_4 :30 pm London, panic at the Sanctuary, Kate has just arrived and an unexpected guest has shown up_

" Heinrich! You should take the phone, old boy! The hairy thing doesn't seem very disposed to communicate with _me_ and frankly, I'm offended! My my, tell me kiddos, what are those distasteful things?

"Don't touch, Vlad!" Henry shouted, snatching the phone from Tesla's hand while Kate rapidly closed the box of mushrooms.

"Uh, no, what's he doing here?" she growled between her teeth.

Henry pouted.

"_Me _only came to pay a visit to an old friend, is that bad? he asked, grinning like the Cheshire cat.

"Well I'm afraid she's not available" Declan answered.

"Oh really? Why? Where is she? Drifting in the Indian Ocean, trying to hide a giant mygale spider in her pocket again?

Henry, Declan and Kate looked at each other and contorted themselves on their chair. They seemed pretty embarrassed.

"Okay…What's the matter Heinrich?" Tesla asked.

"It's complicated…"

"Pray tell!"

"We've lost her. First, she got shrunken, then we left on a mission, then there has been a storm and we've heard nothing about her or Will since, satisfied?" Henry summed up.

"No, not at all, but I do admit you've got a lot of imagination. Seriously, where is she? Nooooo, you're not kidding aren't you? She really is miniaturized ? And say that I missed that!" he sighted, smiling broadly.

"One day, I'm gonna knock his teeth in" Kate whispered.

_7: 49, Hightelms Forest_

"Magnus, I can't take it anymore. We have to stop or I'm really gonna pass out.

She was pushing faster and faster forward through the bushes indeed, and Will had a hard time trying to follow her rhythm. He sat down on a small rock on the bank of a clear stream and started to gulp down water. The storm had vanished, allowing a new wave of wet heat to take its place, yet one could see that the heavy clouds of another downpour were slowly approaching. Helen had rolled up her sleeves and trousers during their rambling and Will discovered that the slender muscles of her calves possessed hypnotic powers. She sat down next to him and plunged her bare feet into the water with a sigh of pleasure.

"I didn't realize there were so many ants until now. Damn, look at that! They are as tall as my phalanx." He said, getting rid of the bug sneaking on his arm.

"Yeah, Werber would have loved to be here with us."

"Well he can take my place, I won't complain."

"Are you hungry?" she asked.

"Not really, why so?"

"Because you're always a spoilsport when you are"

"Me? A spoilsport!?"

"Yes you Will. For the love of god! Look at this landscape, look at the vastness of everything surrounding us, it beautiful, breathtaking? Isn't it? Three weeks from now, you won't be able to see the world like this anymore! You should enjoy all of this or you'll regret it. Come on Will, where is your poetic soul?

"I drop it when I fell down on that root earlier. We can go back and pick it up if you want to." he joked.

He neglected to explain that he actually fell because he was too busy marveling at shape of her ankles to watch his own feet. Helen let out a little laugh and started to spray him so as to get him move.

"Let's go toy soldier!"

And she grabbed the bundle before he could reach for it.

"You know Magnus, I have to say I'd rather carry the bag because you can handle a bow and I can't. So if we run into a fox or…"

"Shh!"

She immediately dropped the bag and bent her bow. Then, she slowly turned around, holding the string stretched and pressed against her cheek and lips. The thin arrow she had sculpted with her knife seemed like an extension of her tensed arm emerging from her knuckles. She held still, standing straight, her knees slightly bent, watching, waiting, looking more like the predator than the prey.

Will suddenly turned his head and caught a brief sight of something exploding through the brambles, and quickly rushing at Helen, he crushed her on the ground. A dozen of sharp spears zoomed wildly over them in a whistling noise. Will's head had randomly landed on Helen's stomach and through her dainty shirt; he could feel the edge of her corset right under his left nostril and the hole of her navel at his lips. His heart stopped. Then he tried to stand up with dignity and picked up one of the spears stuck into the soil.

"What is _that_ thing?" he asked.

"Bloody hell, this is the thorn of a hedgehog; of a spiky-hedgehog more precisely."

"Abnormals ? »

«Yes, they are extremely fearful, slightly bigger than ordinary hedgehogs and they can tense their muscles with such intensity that their thorns get released. If it's still nearby, we should better light out, right now.

She had just enough time to gather the spears before they could feel the ground tremble. Another spear brushed past her shoulder at the same moment that Will cried and fell. Coming through the bushes, the beast charged at her with incredible speed. Will rolled on his side and threw a heavy stone at it. The giant hedgehog slowed down which gave Helen just enough time to shoot an arrow at it, but it bounced back on its thick carapace. The animal turned to attack Will who hammered the thorn he was holding into its thorax and the hedgehog kicked out. Helen took the opportunity to fire again: two shot right between its eyes. Then, there was a long agonizing moan. The soil began to cover itself with blood and slowly absorbed the red-black sticky and smoking substance.

"Let's go, quickly!" Helen shouted taking Will's hand in hers when he emerged from the corpse half laying onto him.

"Why? It's dead by now."

"Yeah, but it was a baby and his mother shouldn't be very far."

Will took the bundle and followed Helen who was wiping the brambles that were getting in the way of their running with her bow. They sprinted, jumping the high roots or sliding underneath them, avoiding the big trees and frizzy foliage for what seemed like an eternity. And when they got to an open clearing, Will's eyes went blind in the bright twilight and he dangerously started to shake and stagger. His ears crackled and the last thing he could hear was Helen's voice loudly calling his name.

She kneeled down and gave him little slaps across the face to keep him awaken. His pulse was slow and steady, she noticed. He hadn't really eaten for two days and with the long walk and the run, it was hypoglycemia for sure. She should have anticipated this. Thankfully, the hedgehogs were far behind.

So, she laid his head in her lap, opened the bundle, found some pieces of chocolate and tried to make him eat. Will, with his eyelids half closed, mumbled something inaudible and, without energy, started to chew painfully. Helen was watching him, stroking his hair and she silently cursed herself.


	10. Chapter 10

_Hi! I've been absent for a long time and I'd like to apology to anyone who had patiently waited for an update. (Chapter II is now beta'd!)_

_I'm pretty sure this chapter will please the Helliam shippers among you! And for the others, just keep in mind that, in the end, no one but Tesla can really pretend to seduce Helen. ;)_

_As always, love to you all._

**Chapter 10**

_7:07 pm London, Sanctuary._

Scrupulously studying the black hat decorated with white spots of a Tretraedric Amanita, Tesla tenderly ripped a piece of it and brought it to its lips.

"Don't do that!" Immediately came Henry's shouting voice through the door.

"Calm down, wolf-boy, it's benign, remember?"

Nikola swallowed the morsel and winced. Few minutes went by during which he waited and kept waiting. Nothing changed.

"Magnus said that they can only affect humans."

"And as absurd and depressing as it may seem, I am human now, so…"

"Human? Come on man, you're a walking magnet!."

"Watch your tongue!"

"Dude, it won't work! You still have source blood in your veins!"

"Hey, give me a break, would you? It did work on her and correct me if I'm wrong but she's not really human either!"

"More human than you are, at least."

"Well thank you, this is heartwarming… Never mind, I'll find a way, you'll see, by dint of trying…"

"What do you mean by dint of trying? How many do you plan to eat?"

"I've already eaten a good dozen of them and frankly, my digestive system doesn't seem to be pleased with…

"Arg, I don't want to know that!" Henry cut off as he walked out, disgusted.

"Wait, before you go, can you unlock the wine cellar for me? I'd do it myself but Helen might get mad if I force the door open…Magnet, remember?"

.

_At the same time in Hightelms forest_

Now back on his feet, Will was helping Magnus to collect some dry wood for the fire when he heard her calling him.

"Bloody hell, look at that!" She says when he approached, pointing out two large amanitas in front of her.

"Yeah, and so what? I'm getting used to see these damn shrooms around here."

But as he was speaking, she hammered a twig in one of the swelled spot of the mushroom and a whitish smoke was relished. Will stepped back to avoid it but inspired a full puff instead.

"I didn't notice that there was something in the white spots before!" She exclaims. "Maybe the mushrooms only produce that gas when reaching their maturity… What if it's meant to entice the one who breathes it until he ingests the mushroom? That would easily explains why neither you nor I can remember eating it. And yet I don't really feel enticed right now… Do you? Perhaps we're immunized by our previous exposure. »

But as soon as she stop talking, another spot exploded just underneath them in a cloud of thick and rich vapor that smelt like hot yeast and made their eyes water. Will's lungs felt warm and heavy.

"Or not!" he asserted with a husky voice. Something had just melt and foamed in his brain. Helen was starting to feel her knees liquefying too, her head was spinning, her heartbeat fastening and the already disproportionate universe suddenly became effervescent, curved and welcoming. Lights and colors zigzagged all around them and the stream of her consciousness was coming undone like a volatile substance carried away by the wind. She looked at Will and his image seemed to sink lightly and yet she could tell his face was pale and his eyes shining abnormally brighter through the darkness of the woods. He looked at her too: the piercing blue areolas of her iris were noticeably blackening.

"My god, Magnus!" he exclaimed, giggling slightly "Your pupils!"

It took her a few seconds to free her gaze from the imaginary spot that she was staring at on Will's face and she finally answered something vaguely incoherent. Will laughed; he laughed hard because, she –meaning Helen Magnus, his rather thorough mentor- was definitely intoxicated, totally high and needless to say that he wasn't far behind. She found his laugh awkwardly contagious and lost herself in the memory of James' famous experiments…

" I've never imagined I could find myself in that situation with you. It reminds me of college." He joked.

"I guess today feels better than then." She said in a dreamy tone.

"Way better, first of all the company is far more enjoyable and the loca….Wait! What did we just come here for already? Oh yes, to gather some wood! That's it. Well, good luck with that !

And yet, they were carrying branches with them in their way back to the clearing. Will was stumbling as much as he was pretending to walk straight and Helen had begun to let out a stream of outdated Victorian insults since the ground obviously had fun setting traps for her. A moment later, she randomly found herself the captive of some thick brambles and Will won a "William, you're my hero!" when, with a great deal of perseverance and effort, he had her liberated. Her clothes hung like scraps and she was scratched from head to toes but not even was she able to feel pain or imagine it, let alone conceptualize it. Will had taken her hand to help her up and, as far as she knew, had kept it in his . He was telling crazy things. She had inadvertently called him "James" twice, and hadn't even thought about correcting herself the second time. But he didn't seem to mind.

When they surface from the highs weeds, they were holding each other to maintain themselves unless it was simply in order to hold each other, Helen wasn't quite sure anymore.

Lighting the fire was an almost impossible challenge. Sometimes Helen was scratching the giant matchstick and sometimes Will was, but on both side, their movements were so uncontrolled that sparks would only spread everywhere and vanish. Will barely held back his not so subtle innuendos and watched her laugh freely and spontaneously with that delightful sound you'd too rarely hear from her. In the end the match kindled and the fire started to grow and roar. They ate the melon-tall berries that they had gathered on the morning. Then, responding to one of his teasing, Helen crushed a fruit on his cheek. His shiny white shirt turned into a juicy purple one. He got rid of it and they kept joking and bickering, watching the night quiver as it fell behind the heated fire.

"If there's a heaven, it looks like this for sure" Will sighed.

"That's probably what anyone high and sitting in the grass next to a fire would say."

"No, that's what you say when you're high, sitting in the grass next to a fire with a high Helen Magnus "

She laughed.

"Woodstock?" He asked in the mood for a little investigation.

"Yes, but only because Janis needed a melanin supplement so that her skin won't start to burn."

"Oh no! You're kidding, right? Right?"

_7:56 pm London Sanctuary_

"Hank! We've just received an encrypted signal!"

"It's not encrypted, it's praxian!" Nikola corrected.

"Yeah, exactly, encrypted!" Kate retorted. "What does it say?"

"Something like: starscraper safe and sound, send Magnus. Then, there are numbers, it looks like coordinates." Nikola said in a disdainful tone.

"Starscraper? It's Thomas!" Henry exclaimed, slamming a pat on Declan's back.

.

_11:18 Hightelms Forest_

The thunder rumbled with such vehemence that the earth trembled beneath them and a second later a drop hit Will's shoulder. Two seconds later, the dark skies unloaded their waters upon them in a heavy rainfall.

Helen was smiling like a child on thanksgiving's morning. She had always been enchanted by nature's whims. Only they could remind mankind of its absolute vanity. She stood, raising an arm to the sky and vaguely remembering this day when, in Cuba, Nikola had mocked her, repeating and mumbling that he couldn't believe that she would do something so childish and cliché before he threw away his jacket and finally came to join her in her dance under the storm. Will, for its part, only seemed surprised and joyful and she could feel, as an electric radiation in her back, his heavy look ruffling her hips and the feline curve that her current posture was giving to her waist. She let a content sigh escape her lips and, slowly spinning on her feet, she shook her damp curls in the rain. She heard her conscious-self scream to her "Magnus, stop, stop!" but Magnus was unreachable since her first puff of that syrupy, heady, milky vapor. Helen was temporarily replacing her.

Will was giggling and walking toward her, but as he was coming closer, he caught a rear view of her, stripping of her wet shirt and sticky trousers, untying her corset with a silent cry of liberation. And all of a sudden, she turned to face him, covering her breast with her thin hands and stared at him with a curious smile and an eyebrow raised up by way of an interrogation mark… So what now, young William?…


End file.
